Though only out for a grand total of four days, Monster Hunter Wilds has sold an astonishing 8 million copies. That’s according to Capcom, reporting that the monster hunting action RPG has become the company’s fastest selling title ever.

The Monster Hunter franchise has racked up a number of superlatives for its publisher with 2018’s Monster Hunter World selling 21 million copies to date to become the company’s best selling game. With these statistics, combined with the success of the Resident Evil remakes, Street Fighter VI, and Dragon’s Dogma 2 (not to mention MonHun Rise), Capcom is one of the few publishers not currently on fire amidst the industry’s larger financial and labor crisis. Even better, it’s parlaying that success into developing new creative endeavors like Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess or reviving much beloved but dormant franchises like Okami and Onimusha.

For now, players seem to be enjoying the hell outta Monster Hunter Wilds so much that it’s causing commotion in the real world. According to a report in Gamespot, MonHun fans are finding the cheese naan that players can make in the game so appealing that it’s selling out in restaurants that specialize in the dish.

Split Fiction, the new game from It Takes Two developer Hazelight Studios, doesn’t do anything particularly new. The game is a straightforward co-op adventure that strings together disparate sci-fi and fantasy games like links on a chain. If you bundled together the sci-fi and fantasy sections as separate entities, they wouldn’t form a cohesive experience in either gameplay or story. And the overarching narrative that connects them all is a pretty heavy-handed (though necessary, in today’s climate) parable about the rapaciousness of generative AI tools and the creative bankruptcy of the executives that develop them.

Nevertheless, there’s an ironic genius in Split Fiction precisely because it takes so many little gameplay elements that I’ve seen and done before and executes them with a brilliance and polish I have not. 

In Split Fiction, you and a partner play as Zoe and Mio, two people who have come to the curiously named Rader Corporation under the auspices of getting their stories published. But — gasp! — instead of getting paid, they get trapped in a machine designed to extract people’s creative ideas. After mishaps and shenanigans, Zoe and Mio are forced to w …

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Steam Next Fest is going on until March 3rd, and I’ve spent a considerable amount of time wading through a seemingly endless carousel of games, filling up my Steam Deck’s internal and external memory looking for the Good Shit™. I’ve landed on four standout game demos that are worth your time now and whenever their full games release.

The Talos Principle Reawakened

The best way to describe The Talos Principle: Reawakened is if Portal was harder, less funny, and written by C.S. Lewis if he knew what a robot was. Reawakened is a remaster of 2014’s The Talos Principle. But according to the developers at Croteam, Reawakened doesn’t just take the original and slap on a next-gen coat of paint; it also adds new story content and a new puzzle editor so players can create their own challenges. 

Reawakened strikes the perfect difficulty balance – not too simple, not too frustrating – that makes its puzzles delightful to figure out. In the demo, you play as a robot tasked with solving puzzles using lasers, signal jammers, and your own burgeoning sentience. The game gives you no tutorial on how exactly to use the tools you’re given. And while that can be annoying if t …

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To celebrate the day when Pikachu pika’d his way into our hearts and minds almost 30 years ago, The Pokémon Company held a Pokémon Presents showcase highlighting what games and experiences to expect in the coming months. There were updates on Pokémon Legends: Z-A, a new season of Pokémon Concierge, and a totally new multiplayer gameplay: Pokémon Champions.

While the reveal was light on the specifics, Champions appears to a game focused solely on battling. Players will be able to import their pokémon from Pokémon Scarlet or Violet, Pokémon Home, and other games into Champions to use in battles against players around the world. There are restrictions, however, on the pokémon you can use. The fine print says that not every pokémon available in Home and elsewhere will be available in Champions and those obtained in Champions cannot be ported back to Home.

It seems like Champions is a gamified version of the online battle simulators competitive Pokémon players use to test team composition and monster builds. The Pokémon Company was specific in that the game is coming to “the Nintendo Switch family of systems,” indicating this game might make an appearance on the forthcoming Switch 2. It’s also coming to Android and iOS.

Pokémon is a very malleable franchise, able to fit a wide variety of game genres that The Pokémon Company seems keen to experiment with. There was Pokken Tournament for the fighting game community, Pokémon UNITE for the MOBA fans, all the casual co-op and 1v1 experiences in the mainline games, and so much more. (Anybody remember Pokémon Conquest, the strategy RPG that was essentially Pikachu meets Nobunaga’s Ambition?) With Pokémon Champions, The Pokémon Company has found yet another way to reach gamers outside of its core games.

It’s time to put all the lessons I’ve learned about Infinity Nikki’s gacha system to the test. There’s a new event coming to the game and with that comes a new outfit I actually want this time. 

After the game taught me an unfortunate lesson on the gacha economy, I’ve kinda taken it easy with Infinity Nikki, and have found myself enjoying it way more at a slower pace.

Updates come about once a month, and when I first started playing, I’d blaze through all the new and shiny quests within days only to spin my wheels at the tail end of the month desperate for something new to do. With that in mind, I slowly worked my way through all the Lunar New Year content, completing everything I wanted mere hours before the event was due to wrap up. It feels like I’ve finally gotten into a steady rhythm with the game. I know how to play and how to spend and I’m happy again enjoying the game for what it is.

With the flashy fireworks in the distance, I took a look ahead to the next event, Eerie Season, due to start February 26th. It’s an oddly themed update. Typically games save their spooky events for October not March. But the community has been clamoring for more darker themed clothing since the overwhelming majority of the game’s items are pink and pastel so this seems like a response to that. The update will also flesh out the Queen’s Palace Ruins, an area of the game that’s visually interesting with its dilapidated and haunted castle vibe but devoid of any story or quest content. I am interested in poking at the darker bits of Infinity Nikki’s story and the overall lore of the world and Eerie Season seems poised to give me just what I’m looking for.

One of the things that’s helped me stick to my guns about not spending any extra money is the fact that premium outfits have never really moved me at all. Everything’s cute, of course, but nothing’s made me sit up and go “I must have this!” However, that apathy disappeared the moment I took a look at the premium outfits for Eerie Season.

I saw that cowboy outfit and audibly cursed. I’m from the midwest, we don’t have cowboys here. I don’t even like cowboys like that but … I must have this. So I’ve decided to apply all the tricks and tips I’ve learned about gacha game to acquiring this one outfit without spending any extra money. I think I’ll be able to do it, too.  

After that rather frustrating lesson on exactly how gacha games can fleece even the most clear-eyed players, I haven’t spent any more money and have ignored the game’s clothing slot machine. As a result, I’ve amassed a small but tidy sum of premium currency, although not enough to get the cowboy outfit outright. After some light mathing, I’ve determined that I’ll need another 4,000 or so of the premium currency (or roughly $15). Thankfully, with what the battle pass and the new event quests will provide, I’m reasonably confident that I’ll have more than enough to get the entire outfit without any extra spending.

Weirdly enough, I’m excited about it. Not just because I’ll have an outfit that I truly want but also because there’s a thrill to making, executing, and succeeding with a plan. We’ll see how that goes when the new event starts February 26th.

Like Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, Konami and Bloober Team are back in action together. Bloober Team announced that it will continue its partnership with the Japanese publisher on a new project.

“The trust built upon the success of Silent Hill 2 laid the foundation for signing another agreement for a new project,” the announcement read. And while the new project will be based on Konami’s IP, the two companies did not share if the next game will be another Silent Hill or something else from Konami’s back catalog. (Hey, just thinkin’ out loud here, but when was the last Castlevania game released? 2014? Oh, okay.)

Konami and Bloober Team paired up in 2022 when the companies announced they would be collaborating on a remake of Silent Hill 2. Due to lukewarm reviews of Bloober’s original horror game The Medium, there was skepticism that the studio would be able to pull off a remake of one of the most celebrated survival horror games of its time. But Silent Hill 2 launched to rave reviews and sales, making it the fastest-selling entry in the Silent Hill series. 

Beyond Bloober Team, Konami is also working on a new, non-remake Silent Hill game called Silent Hill F that …

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Annapurna Interactive is hosting its first showcase of the year, and it’s an important one. Last year, Annapurna Interactive’s entire staff resigned en masse after negotiations to spin off the respected indie game publisher into its own independent entity broke down. Since then, those employees have formed their own company and even have a new crop of games to manage since it took over publishing duties for Take-Two’s former indie label Private Division. But where does that leave Annapurna?

After the resignations, the company issued a statement assuring players that its games would still be published as normal. With this showcase (which you can watch in full here), we will get more details on what to expect from Annapurna in the first half of 2025. 

To a T

To a T is the latest release from Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi, and damn, if it ain’t adorable like most of his games. The game tells the story of Teen, a young person with a… we’ll say “unique” posture, and it’s up to you to help them navigate the challenges that come with being born stuck in a permanent “T” pose. For the showcase, To a T got a special music video a la “It’s Bugsnax!” featuring the vocal stylings of Steven Universe creator Rebecca Sugar. To a T launches on May 28th on Xbox, PS5, and PC, and a demo is available now on Steam.

Morsels

Morsels is a creature collector roguelite with a creepy / cute grossout vibe. Use your powers of transformation to turn into the right monster for the job and battle against evil cat creatures. (Finally, some cozy cat game counterprogramming!) No release date on Morsels yet, but expect it to launch sometime in 2025 on PC and Nintendo Switch.

Wheel World

There’s something about the kinds of presentations that give a glimpse into the people and lives that make these games that really endears me to both the studio and the game. I’m not a bike person, but after seeing the behind-the-scenes presentation for Wheel World, I want to be. Wheel World is an open-world magical cycling adventure where you can ride, race, customize your bike, and ultimately save the world. It launches summer 2025, but you can check out the demo now during Steam’s Next Fest.

Faraway

According to its one-man development team, Faraway can be played with just one hand. In it, you play as a shooting star destined to flicker out but that keeps itself shining brightly by traveling the stars and making constellations. The game consists of a “story” mode that procedurally generates in response to players’ actions and skill levels. There’s also a puzzle mode designed to challenge players in their journey across the stars. Try out Faraway during Steam’s Next Fest or wait for the game’s release on PC later this year.

Geometric Interactive

Geometric, developer of the phenomenal puzzle platformer Cocoon, is back with some lo-fi vibes to carry orbs to. The studio is working with iam8bit to release a collector’s edition of the game as well as Cocoon’s soundtrack on vinyl. The studio also teased that it’s working on a completely new game but, of course, didn’t share any details yet. 

Lushfoil Photography Sim

As the name suggests, Lushfoil is all about taking pictures using true-to-life photography techniques. Explore different locations around the world, including the torii gates of Kyoto, Japan, the lush forests of Italy, and even the mountainous Annapurna region in Nepal. Each location is rendered in stunning detail and features photography objectives and collectible cameras that’ll encourage players to strive for the perfect shot. Lushfoil has a demo available on Steam and is slated to launch on April 15th, 2025, on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC.

Wanderstop

Wanderstop is a cozy adventure sim all about tea and navigating difficult life changes, but mostly about tea. Collect ingredients for tea, brew it in an elaborate contraption that looks more like a mad scientist chemistry kit, and thwart the designs of an apparently nefarious bird. Wanderstop is the first game from Ivy Road and is set to launch on Steam and PS5 on March 11th.

Skin Deep

Skin Deep has one hell of a pitch. According to the developers at Blendo Games, the game is essentially “Die Hard with more comedy.” You play as Nina Pasadena, a legendary assassin turned “insurance commando” tasked with saving a starship from a space pirate invasion using whatever tools and weapons she can scrounge along the way. Based on the trailer, Skin Deep feels like a cross between Hitman and Skibidi Toilet, which, honestly, sounds like a neat vibe. You can test that vibe for yourself in the demo or wait for the game’s launch on April 30th.

Sayonara Wild Hearts

Sayonara Wild Hearts was one of the breakout hits of 2019, and it’s back with next-gen updates and a brand-new game mode exclusively for PS5. Remix Arcade allows players to chase high scores in infinitely replayable, progressively faster, and more difficult sound bites with no loading. Sayonara Wild Hearts on PS5 is out now and available as a free upgrade if you have the PS4 version.

It was hard playing a preview of South of Midnight because, 20 minutes in, I just started bawling. The demo for the action-adventure platformer starts at the beginning of chapter three. The protagonist, Hazel, is working her way through a swamp trying to find her mother, who, along with their house, had been washed away in a hurricane. At the same time, she comes to learn her newfound powers as a Weaver — a person who can manipulate the metaphysical strands that connect all life — from the ghostly echoes of an enslaved woman who used her powers to escape to freedom and help others do the same.

With all that weighing on me, I held it together pretty well. But as I went through the double jump tutorial, a choir started singing a hymn in the background and I just lost it. It wasn’t that it was an emotional hymn; I didn’t even recognize it. But I knew the song was of me and for me even without having heard it before. That’s the kind of cultural weight the developers at Xbox studio Compulsion Games have invested in South of Midnight.

The authenticity that oozes from the game was intentionally cultivated. Its story draws upon American Southern Gothic folklore, which itself i …

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Earlier this week, the US-based developers working on Marvel Rivals began reporting on LinkedIn that they had been laid off. The developers did not give a reason for the layoffs, which came as a shock to the gaming community because of Rivals’ evident success. However, in a statement to The Verge, NetEase has clarified that the reason was organizational streamlining.

“We recently made the difficult decision to adjust Marvel Rivals’ development team structure for organizational reasons and to optimize development efficiency for the game,” wrote Alex Armour, a PR representative from NetEase Games. “This resulted in a reduction of a design team based in Seattle that is part of a larger global design function in support of Marvel Rivals.”

The statement continued by reassuring fans that development on Rivals would continue with a core group of developers based in China. “We are investing more, not less, into the evolution and growth of this game.”

According to a report in VentureBeat though, organizational streamlining doesn’t give the full picture of what’s going on, with sources claiming the real reason for the layoffs is that NetEase executives are no longer confident in overseas development teams. The success of Black Myth: Wukong has apparently proven to NetEase that blockbuster hits can be made cheaper and closer to home without the need for expensive overseas teams in Europe and America. 

In a statement to VentureBeat, NetEase denied claims that it intends to retreat from overseas development and that the layoffs in Seattle only represent a small portion of its holdings abroad. “Our studios in North America, UK, Spain, and Japan all continue to refine and develop their ongoing game projects.”

NetEase declined to detail the exact scope of the Seattle layoffs which come just two months after Marvel Rivals launched to rapid critical and financial success with reports estimating that it raised over $130 million in revenue in its first month.

Marvel Rivals, the Overwatch 2-lunch-eating multiplayer shooter that boasted 20 million players within days of its December 2024 launch, has laid off an unspecified number of employees in its US operations, according to separate posts by recently laid off employees on LinkedIn.

“Welp, just got laid off from my job working on Marvel Rivals with NetEase,” wrote level designer Jack Burrows.

“My stellar, talented team just helped deliver an incredibly successful new franchise in Marvel Rivals for NetEase Games… and were just laid off!” wrote Thaddeus Sasser, a game director at NetEase.

The Verge has reached out to NetEase for comment on the scope and reason for the layoffs. 

One way players have reacted to the news by lodging complaints via user reviews on Steam, voicing their anger that NetEase would lay off the team responsible for a game so evidently popular. Out of the roughly 1,000 reviews posted today, more than 300 have been negative.

Along with Palworld and Helldivers 2, Marvel Rivals has proved one of the standouts in a series of live-service flops in the face of stiff competition from entrenched live-service games like Call of Duty and Fortnite. It’s in the top 5 games based on weekly active users across Xbox, PlayStation, and Steam and it’s currently sitting at number three on Steam’s most-played games chart. And yet, apparently, that wild success wasn’t enough to insulate its US team from layoffs.

Sasser vocalized the disconnect in his LinkedIn post, writing, “This is such a weird industry…”

With GTA VI looming over the fall 2025 release schedule, a new report from Digiday claims that Rockstar is going all-in on user-generated content. According to the report, the developer is having discussions with Fortnite, Roblox, and GTA creators about making “custom experiences” inside what’s shaping up to be the biggest gaming release since the last Grand Theft Auto game launched way (way) back in 2013.

That Rockstar has made user-generated content part of its strategy for GTA VI should come as no surprise. Despite the last GTA launching over ten years ago (same with GTA Online), interest in the game has stayed fresh with the help of mods like FiveM that allow users to host and join their own multiplayer servers. 

Rockstar initially banned some of the creators of FiveM back in 2015, citing that their mod was “an unauthorized alternate multiplayer service that contains code designed to facilitate piracy.” However, as the popularity of the kinds of games and role-playing enabled by FiveM and similar mods grew, Rockstar reversed course. In 2023, the company acquired Cfx.re, the team that developed FiveM.

Games like Fortnite, Roblox, and Minecraft remain at the top of US sales charts years after their release thanks to the popularity of user-generated content. Arranging deals with creators prior to its launch will help GTA VI hit the ground running in a crowded marketplace.

Magic: The Gathering has revealed a look at its forthcoming Final Fantasy-themed set. In an interview with IGN, senior game designer Daniel Holt talked about the collaboration and this initial look, which focuses on four major character cards and their associated pre-constructed Commander decks.

The revealed cards include Terra from Final Fantasy VI, Tidus from Final Fantasy X, Y’shtola from (critically acclaimed MMORPG) Final Fantasy XIV, and of course, Cloud from Final Fantasy VII. What’s interesting about these Commander decks is that instead of being constructed to simply support a single powerful card (known as the Commander), each deck’s mechanics and cards are designed to tell the story of a specific Final Fantasy game.

Since the back half of Final Fantasy VI is all about rebuilding the world Kefka destroyed, its associated deck is all about returning creatures from the graveyard to the battlefield, for example. Cloud’s deck is all about equipment — you gotta have the right materia for the job, right? Magic has always been really good with how it marries the story of a set to gameplay mechanics, and seeing that applied to Final Fantasy is really cool. 

In the IGN interview, Holt assured fans that even though these Commander decks are focused on only four games, the rest of the Standard-legal set will feature cards that represent all 16 mainline Final Fantasy games.

You can see previews for some of those cards’ artwork on the set’s official website here. There will be even more cards revealed during an official MTG x Final Fantasy livestream taking place on February 18th at 1PM ET.

The full set launches on June 13th and will feature artwork from famed Final Fantasy artist Yoshitaka Amano.

My first time playing Elden Ring Nightreign, I was stressed the hell out. My team and I were in an underground dungeon, trying to make our way past traps and dangerous blind corners, all while knowing there was an invisible clock ominously ticking down above our heads. If we were still underground when it hit zero a deadly storm called Night’s Tide would close in, potentially trapping us. That kind of anxiety was exactly what Elden Ring combat designer and Nightreign’s game director Junya Ishizaki had in mind.

Speaking with Ishizaki after my time with the game, I was surprised to learn one of the main inspirations for Nightreign – a co-op focused PvE action game – was the board game Pandemic. Ishizaki said that one of the things he enjoyed about Pandemic, which he later incorporated into Nightreign, was the idea of playing under pressure. “When you come up against these seemingly insurmountable odds, it’s up to the player to choose how to use their time in order to overcome the seemingly impossible challenge,” he explained.

The tension between whether to continue through the dungeon as the HP-draining Night’s Tide storm slowly closed in, or to cut bait and run, was …

Read the full story at The Verge.

It’s inaccurate and reductive to call Elden Ring Nightreign a Dark Souls take on Fortnite. And yet, if pressed for an extremely brief elevator pitch — say, the kind you’d give to your friends who are curious about soulsborne games but are put off by all the discussions of their difficulty — it’s about as best as you could do. In my hands-on time with the game, I was compelled to ask my team at the outset of our very first run, “Well… where we droppin’ boys?” as we flew over the map in the claws of spectral birds. The similarity to Fortnite and other battle royale games was so striking, the reference simply had to be made. But once we got on the ground, Fortnite took a big ol’ backseat and Elden Ring reemerged as the foremost game Nightreign compares to.

Nightreign strips out the combat and visual aesthetics of Elden Ring and lays them over gameplay that combines multiplayer battle royale action with roguelike live, die, repeat mechanics. Matches will take place over three days. During daylight, players will assault a Limgrave-like map (called Limveld), either solo or in teams of three, beating regular enemies and mini-bosses for powerful weapons, accessories, …

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Unity has been hit with another round of layoffs. This is according to posts on LinkedIn from recently laid off staff and confirmed by reporting from Game Developer and 80.lvl. According to reports, employees were notified via emails sent out at 5 AM local time, while the layoffs affect a number of different teams within the the game engine software company. According to a message posted in the Unity forums, one of the casualties in the layoffs was the entire Behavior department which built tools that assisted in NPC scripting. It’s not clear at this point how many employees were impacted.

Unity has been on shaky ground for the last two years, undergoing several rounds of layoffs amid other upheavals. In January 2024, Unity eliminated 25 percent of its workforce or around 1,800 employees. Before that in November 2023, Unity closed several office locations and cut 265 jobs.

Before that was one of the events that likely contributed to all the layoffs: the company’s disastrous deployment of its Runtime fee. The fee, which initially intended to charge developers a small fee for every download of a Unity game, was roundly rejected by prominent indie developers. Several voiced their concerns on social media, while others threatened and, in the case of a collective of mobile developers, actually enacted a boycott of the software.

The fallout led to Unity revamping the runtime fee and resulted in CEO John Riccitiello retiring less than a month after the runtime announcement. The Verge has reached out to Unity for comment.

Sony has announced that it will hold a presentation to show off the next batch of upcoming Playstation games. The presentation will take place Wednesday, February 12th at 2 PM PT / 5 PM ET. It’ll have a runtime of 40 minutes and feature, “creative and unique selection of exciting games from studios around the world.”

Last month, Nintendo held its own presentation to finally announce its next console, the Switch 2. Meanwhile Xbox held a more game-focused Developer Direct which included an announcement for Ninja Gaiden 4 as well as a stealth drop for the remaster of Ninja Gaiden II. Sony’s announcement comes just a few days removed from a huge PlayStation Network outage over the weekend, which resulted in subscribers getting a few extra days added to their accounts.

As for the event itself, we can reasonably expect an update on Ghosts of Yotei, the sequel to Sucker Punch Studios’ Ghosts of Tsushima that was announced at Sony’s September 2024 State of Play. Ubisoft might also make an appearance with Assassin’s Creed: Shadows which was delayed for a second time, pushing its new release date to March 20th. There might also be an update on Insomniac Games’ new Wolverine title which, outside of some details including a playable build getting leaked in a malicious hack, hasn’t had an official update since its reveal in 2021.

But it won’t be long now before we find out just what PlayStation has in store for the year.

There are few things more daunting than attempting to win a game of Civilization by way of cultural victory… except maybe trying to play a complex strategy game on the Steam Deck. And while I’m still struggling on the culture victory aspect, I can say, playing Civilization VII on my Steam Deck was far less difficult than I imagined. 

In my review of Civilization VII, my biggest complaint was not really understanding some of the game’s more complex systems. The controls are a function of that misunderstanding. In playing a game as information-dense as Civilization, every function is mapped to a button, and there are a lot of functions. I tried my best to memorize it all but was grateful for the Deck’s touch-screen functionality, which let me forgo buttons in certain instances.

However, there were times when I occasionally encountered a bug where I’d click on a selection and nothing happened. It was never anything mission-critical. Sometimes the game didn’t want to register when I wanted to put a unit to sleep or ignored my attempts to establish a trade route I knew I met the criteria for. These complaints blend with my initial problems with the game’s legibility. M …

Read the full story at The Verge.

It’s odd that a match-3 game got me in my feelings so much that I’m considering adding making games to my profession of covering them. But that’s exactly what happened after my delightful time with Spirit Swap: Lofi Beats to Match-3 To.

It’s a mouthful of a name, but damned if the game doesn’t do exactly what it says on the tin. There are little colorful block-shaped spirits, and you swap ‘em around to match three (or more) while charming and calming lo-fi beats bang out of your speakers. It reminds me of the recent trend in anime where the titles of shows are hyper-descriptive to the point of hilarity, and just like those shows, there’s a lot more going on than a simple match-3 game with a chill soundtrack. And I love it.

In Spirit Swap, you play as Samar, a witch with a lovely technicolor wardrobe who protects the material plane from mischievous but benign spirits that occasionally cross over and gunk things up. Throughout the game, Samar encounters her gaggle of friends, talking them through their myriad problems by challenging them to spirit-swapping competitions — think Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine with a dash of informal talk therapy.

Swapping is gen …

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After 20 years, World of Warcraft is finally adding player housing. During its Warcraft 30th Anniversary Direct last year, Blizzard delighted players with the surprise announcement that the feature — a long-time staple in other MMOs — was on the way. Now the studio has revealed a bit more information with a new blog explaining how it’s all supposed to work.

In the past, WoW has obliquely flirted with the concept of player housing with the garrison feature from the Warlords of Draenor expansion in 2014. Players had their own home base or “garrisons” that they could customize from a pool of buildings, but they couldn’t invite others in to see them or have any say over decor. Player housing, on the other hand, is meant to give players greater control over everything.

According to Blizzard there are three principles driving the development of player housing in Azeroth: self-expression, sociability, and longevity. The team wants players to be able easily customize their houses and socialize with their friends and guildmates within a feature that’s meant to last for expansions to come.

Initially, Blizzard plans on implementing only two housing areas, one for each faction. These houses will be arranged into neighborhoods that are either public with everyone free to come and go as they please, or private neighborhoods established and maintained by friend groups or guilds. Decor for these homes will be obtained either by questing or purchasing and are meant to reflect all the different aesthetics of the game’s numerous races, cultures, and locations that make up WoW’s ever expanding world. 

Interestingly, WoW has also said it wants to make player housing available for everyone which included a very pointed shot across the bow at one of WoW’s biggest competitors — Final Fantasy XIV — which has had player housing for several years. As a player of the “critically acclaimed MMORPG,” I can tell you the requirements for obtaining housing (and the hoops you have to go through to actually get and keep one) are so onerous that it’s never been worth pursuing. It’s good that Blizzard is differentiating its housing initiative from others by making it clear what players can expect in that regard.

“If you want a house, you can have a house,” Blizzard’s post read. “No exorbitant requirements or high purchase costs, no lotteries, and no onerous upkeep (and if your subscription lapses, don’t worry, your house doesn’t get repossessed!).” 

Blizzard hasn’t given a timeline on when housing will be implemented. The company released its latest expansion War Within, last year as the first part of its three-expansion long continuous story dubbed “The Worldsoul Saga.” Housing could come as soon as a War Within patch or when the next expansion, Midnight, releases likely sometime in 2026.

As we settle in for the long, excruciating wait for more tangible news on the Switch 2, Nintendo has thrown us a little extra nugget of information. While we knew the company was planning to share more about the Switch 2 on April 2nd, now we have a time: 9 AM ET / 6 AM PT / 10 PM JST. If you were taking bets on this time, you would have won handily as this is generally the usual time Nintendo holds its big events. The announcement on Nintendo’s website didn’t contain any extra detail about the duration of the event or the exact breakdown of topics that’ll be covered, other than to say it “will share a closer look” at the new device.

Last month, the company finally confirmed the existence of its new console dubbed, helpfully, the Switch 2. The reveal itself was sparse on detail, only confirming that the console would be larger than its predecessor and that its Joy-Con controllers appear to attach via some kind of magnetic action. Because of the reveal’s relative lack of concrete information, we’re left with so many questions about the new console. Nevertheless, there was still lots of speculation about what the Switch 2 could possibly do. Theories were put forth that the new Joy-Cons contained some kind of mouse functionality and that the extra button on the right Joy-Con was related to some kind of party chat feature. Hopefully, Nintendo will let us know those if theories were correct during the Switch 2 Nintendo Direct on Wednesday, April 2nd bright and early at 9 AM.